AgClips
Recent AgClips
Exxon Mobil secured U.S. hardship waiver from biofuels laws
Reuters | Posted onDecember 20, 2018 in Energy NewsThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted oil major Exxon Mobil Corp a financial hardship waiver this year temporarily freeing its Montana refinery from U.S. biofuel laws.
USDA will clamp down on work rules for food-stamp recipients
Politico | Posted onDecember 20, 2018 in Federal NewsThe Agriculture Department on Thursday proposed a rule to more strictly enforce existing work requirements on more food-stamp recipients by reining in states’ ability to waive time restrictions. The release of the rule comes on the same day President Donald Trump is expected to sign the farm bill into law — and the timing is no accident.The proposal, which was initially expected to be released before the midterm elections, is the administration’s response to concessions House Republicans made on food stamps in the final bill.
Farmers know climate change is real.
Civil Eats | Posted onDecember 19, 2018 in Agriculture NewsCraig Dunnum didn’t read the recently released National Climate Assessment which predicts the nation’s farm commodity contribution to the economy—$136.7 billion in 2016, already low due to falling prices—will be increasingly vulnerable to droughts, floods, pests, and disease. Instead, he lived it.The fourth-generation farmer in south-central Wisconsin has been through four 100-year floods in the past eight years. This year was the worst ever, with 20 inches of rain in 10 days. Two dams broke, flooding the small farming community nearby with eight feet of water.
Bankers praise farm bill's credit title
DTN | Posted onDecember 19, 2018 in Federal NewsThe Agricultural Act of 2018 raises FSA loan guarantees to $1.75 million from the current $1.399 million. It also doubles the loan limit for direct farm ownership, or real estate, loans to $600,000 and increases the limit on direct farm operating loans by $100,000 to $400,000. Elfmann said lenders often use a combination of banking products to meet borrowers' needs. With an FSA loan guarantee, the bank or another lender closes the loan and advances the funds to the borrower. In the event the borrower defaults, FSA reimburses the bank.
How opioids become a problem
DTN | Posted onDecember 19, 2018 in Rural NewsThey were found dead in front yards and in cars on the streets of rural Jackson County, West Virginia.
The hard truths of trying to 'save' the rural economy
The New York Times | Posted onDecember 18, 2018 in Rural NewsThere are 60 million people, almost one in five Americans, living on farms, in hamlets and in small towns across the landscape. For the last quarter century the story of these places has been one of relentless economic decline. This is, of course, not news to the people who live in rural and small-town America, who have been fighting for years to reverse this decline. But now, the nation’s political class is finally noticing.
Pandora's pill bottle: Opioids in rural America
DTN | Posted onDecember 18, 2018 in Rural NewsPandora's box was a large jar given to Pandora that contained all of the world's evils. She unleashed it all when she opened the jar.
Miners replaced by machines
Charleston Gazette Mail | Posted onDecember 18, 2018 in Energy NewsAround the world, in all types of mining, automated machines are replacing human diggers. Forbes magazine calls them “the robots that will mine in hell.”The magazine described a 7,000-foot-deep Arizona copper mine where temperatures are 175 degrees Fahrenheit and warm water drizzles constantly.
An Epidemic Is Killing Thousands Of Coal Miners. Regulators Could Have Stopped It
NPR | Posted onDecember 18, 2018 in Energy NewsA multiyear investigation by NPR and the PBS program Frontline found that Smith and Kelly are part of a tragic and recently discovered outbreak of the advanced stage of black lung disease, known as complicated black lung or progressive massive fibrosis. A federal monitoring program reported just 99 cases of advanced black lung disease nationwide from 2011-2016.
Despite Uncertainty After Court Ruling, Medicaid Expansion Likely to Proceed
Pew Trust | Posted onDecember 18, 2018 in SARL Members and Alumni NewsThe three red states — Idaho, Nebraska and Utah — that bucked their own Republican legislatures last month and approved Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act are likely to proceed, despite Friday’s ruling by a federal judge in Texas that the entire federal health care law is unconstitutional.